FAQ

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It takes a certain mind-set to play storm. A lot of the deck's intricacies don't exactly transfer over from other decks in Legacy or even other formats. That said, I'm a believer in that anyone can be taught how to play The EPIC Storm at a high level - you just have to put in the work. Most Legacy decks require a learning curve, this deck is no different, if you put in the effort - you'll get there.

While I do believe the deck is slightly harder to play than it's cousin ANT at a fundamental level, the difference is negligible.

Now to answer the question at hand:I can't answer that for you.

Do you enjoy doing broken things in other aspects of Magic: The Gathering? Then yes. If you love midrange decks and grinding value, there's a good chance you won't enjoy playing combo in general.

Playing The EPIC Storm is for people who enjoy the rush of winning the game on turn one through countermagic or discard (See Video Below), the individuals who like to figure out the best probable line using math, and those who like problem solving difficult scenarios on how to best win through disruption.

For starters, I would check out AJ Kerrigan's article series "Reading the Ropes" as it's targeted at players learning the storm archetype. Once you've ripped through that series I would move onto articles about specific match-ups.

Learning the proper strategies, game plans, how to mulligan, and how each deck combats you will go a very long way. Fortunately for you, The EPIC Storm has a few series dedicated to solving match-ups:

If you've conquered that, I would suggest that you're likely ready for something a little more in-depth. TES Infernal Tutoring brings together the website's team to analyze difficult scenarios and decisions. You'll gain multiple perspectives on how to handle situations.

At the end of all of this, if you're interested in more, I would suggest browsing the Resources page. It has a filter that helps you find exactly what you're looking for.

For over ten years I exclusively used Powder Blue Ultra Pro sleeves. When Dragonshield released the Matte Sky Blue sleeves I decided I would try those out as well KMC hard perfect fit sleeves for extra protection. I haven't looked back, I'm a huge fan of both of these products.

Note: This will cause your deck to be larger than a standard double-sleeved deck. I've found the best deck box for those who use KMC hard perfect fit sleeves to be Dex Protection Boxes.

I am not sponsored or paid to say these things, these are just what I've found to be the best for my purposes.

Yes, this is my twitch account. I don't have a streaming schedule, I'm pretty unlikely to stream Monday-Friday from 8am-6pm EST as I have a full-time job. If I am streaming, it's likely going to be a Monday or Tuesday night (I generally have those free) or on the weekends.

The EPIC Storm branding is not available to non-site employees. While we appreciate everyone wanting to represent our brand, deck, and passion, The EPIC Storm cannot risk their words reflecting our values/code of conduct.

I don't record my opening hands too often (All notes are public information which means the opponent is allowed to view them - if you're going to, do it after the game.), I do record my opponents hands when I cast Thoughtseize or Duress. I do write notes in game, but I use abbreviations and write quickly typically immediately after I say, "Go." or even in between games after I've sideboarded. Keep in mind that I'm typically fairly fast at these sorts of things, if you're a person who takes their time with things I could see the stalling aspect. I also expand on my notes at the end of rounds.

Not joking - I don't like this question, but it comes up so frequently.

In short, not really. You can try to get by without dual lands (Underground Sea, Volcanic Island, and Badlands) by using shock lands (Steam Vents, Blood Crypt, and Watery Grave) or fast lands (Spirebluff Canal, Blackcleave Cliffs, or Darkslick Shores) but both of these types of lands have drawbacks.

With shock lands you gain the ability to shuffle your deck with fetchlands, but the life-loss is very tough on the deck's primary goal of casting Ad Nauseam. Meanwhile with fast lands, you have great mana with no life loss, but your Ponders and Brainstorms are very lackluster without shuffle effects.

There's three dual lands in the current list, just sell some modern cards and acquire them!

Does your metagame contain Miracles? If not, probably not.Do you value Xantid Swarm against Show and Tell? If not, probably not.

I would prefer a perfect world where The EPIC Storm could be truly Grixis. There was a time briefly after the banning of Sensei's Divining Top where this was the case. But a surge of Miracles players piloting Counterbalance with an increased number of cantrips came back to the online metagame.

I believe for any large event you should be playing green. As a diverse metagame will likely have one skilled individual with Counterbalance or Ethersworn Canonist backed by countermagic.

TLDR - You can get by without it, but you're better off with the extra color splash.

Silence was best in a time period where everyone agreed to fight Storm on the stack with things like Stifle and Spell Snare. We're long past those days, in the current metagame people use permanent based disruption often paired with spells to combat storm. This makes cards like Silence a very poor choice compared to discard spells as discard can beat most angles of attack.

There's also the issue with the mana, fitting white into the deck is difficult. You pretty much have to sacrifice your basic lands as well as a few fetchlands (which makes Brainstorm worse) in order to support something that is comparable to discard.

Now, there's certainly benefits. It can get around Leyline of Sanctity since it doesn't target, same with Leovold, Emissary of Trest (Which would allow a lethal Tendrils of Agony to not be countered by Flusterstorm). It's also not too shabby in the combo mirror.

Realistically, I think if there was ever a white replacement for something like Abrupt Decay then Silence could come back. It would be used in a similar vein as Xantid Swarm. If it did, I wouldn't expect Gemstone Mine or City of Brass. The deck would probably just run a searchable white source.

Drawing Tendrils of Agony is one of the worst things you can do in the early game, especially when your deck aims to win by turns one or two. There's also the fact that in most situations in which you could cast Tendrils of Agony for lethal, you could likely pay two more mana for Burning Wish. These things have combined to move Tendrils of Agony exclusively to the sideboard.

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